[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 73 (Wednesday, April 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Samantha Power

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, as I have said many times in the past, 
Presidents should be given a good deal of discretion when choosing 
their political appointees, and so long as their nominees are qualified 
and do not obstruct the advice and consent process, the Senate should 
not stand in the way of their confirmation.
  After all, Presidents are ultimately responsible for the actions of 
their administration. And if the buck truly stops at the Resolute Desk, 
they need to be able to trust their subordinates to get the job done.
  That being said, I now come to the point of my coming to the floor; 
that I must vote no on the nomination of Samantha Power to be Director 
of USAID.
  On February 18, I sent a letter to Ms. Power asking questions 
regarding emails that came out of her office during her time serving as 
U.N. Ambassador.
  Heavily redacted versions of those emails obtained by my office 
appear to suggest that Ms. Power's staff may have been working behind 
the scenes to remove the Islamic Relief Agency from the U.S. Treasury 
Department's sanctions list.
  That organization was placed on the sanctions list for what? 
Funneling money to terrorist groups, and, thus, removing it would allow 
that organization to receive private donations as well as taxpayer 
funds.
  In her letter responding to my questions, Ms. Power claimed that she 
was not working to take the Islamic Relief Agency off the sanctions 
list. She further claimed that the emails in question were part of an 
effort to challenge false claims made by the Islamic Relief Agency at 
the U.N. denying their involvement in terrorist financing.
  In order to verify her claims, I have requested, on multiple 
occasions, that she provide unredacted copies of the emails and 
complete answers to the questions that I posed in my original letter.
  But after 3 months, all I have received is a collection of public 
press releases. I have not received the emails I requested. I have not 
received answers to my questions.
  Normally, political appointees and nominees wait until after they are 
confirmed to start ignoring congressional inquiries, but in this case, 
it seems the Executive branch has decided advice and consent is going 
to be a mere formality, and there is no need to wait. This seems to be 
a pattern.
  For instance, I asked the Secretary of HHS a number of specific 
questions for the record as part of the Finance Committee vetting 
process. I received responses that didn't even try to answer the 
substance of my questions.
  I also asked Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to reconcile some 
conflicting information on her House financial disclosures and 
responses to questions for the record for the Energy Committee about 
her taxes. They weren't gotcha questions either. In fact, it was 
probably innocent mistakes on her part, if anything, but Secretary 
Haaland declined to respond at all.
  Maybe the White House figures simply that they don't need Republican 
votes so they don't need to answer even routine vetting questions from 
Republicans, but then the White House can't blame Republicans for 
voting no on their nominees when they ignore our oversight questions.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.